September 24, 2024 • 7 mins
Gold is having a stellar 2024, up more than 25% recently to an all-time high above $2,600 an ounce. Silver is showing even larger gains. Investors can profit from a wide range of vehicles – including physical coins. But how do you get started? What’s different about buying physical metal versus trading gold or silver ETFs? What key forces are driving precious metals – and will they lead to more gains in the rest of the year and beyond? I sat down with Dana Samuelson, President of American Gold Exchange, at the 2024 MoneyShow Masters Symposium Las Vegas to discuss all of that, and more.
Dana explains how one or two forces usually influence metals prices, but that several of them are “coming to bear at the same point in time” – and that’s why gold just hit an all-time high. Specifically, he discusses in detail the influence that government debt, interest rates, geopolitical conflicts, inflation concerns, and central bank buying are having on the market. Then he shares tips about investing in coins, including why analyzing premiums for vintage coins relative to benchmarks is so important. Finally, he explains how American Gold Exchange can help coin investors who are looking to participate in the market.
Dana explains how one or two forces usually influence metals prices, but that several of them are “coming to bear at the same point in time” – and that’s why gold just hit an all-time high. Specifically, he discusses in detail the influence that government debt, interest rates, geopolitical conflicts, inflation concerns, and central bank buying are having on the market. Then he shares tips about investing in coins, including why analyzing premiums for vintage coins relative to benchmarks is so important. Finally, he explains how American Gold Exchange can help coin investors who are looking to participate in the market.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi there.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Mike Larson, editor in chief at Money Show, and
I'm coming to you from the Money Show Master's Imposium
in Las Vegas today. I'm pleased to be speaking with
Dana Samuelson, President of American Gold Exchange.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Dana, how are you.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm great, Mike's great to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, glad we could have a chance to chat here.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I know in your presentation, what was it called the
why gold will continue to be one of the best
performing assets in the twenty first century. Let's talk about that.
If somebody didn't get a chance to catch your keynote, what.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Was the basic thesis?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, you know, I've been watching the gold market for
forty four years. I started the American Gold Exchange twenty
six years ago, and so I've been watching the gold
price take up and down for a long long time.
And usually we have one or two market influencing factors
or forces come to bear on the market at a
single point in time. They go away, so interest rates
(00:50):
or debt, or geopolitical conflict or inflation, or just excess demand.
And we're in a phase right now. It's unusual in
that we've got all of these forces coming to bear
on the market at the same point in time, at
the same place, which means a gold setting a new
(01:10):
all time high.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I mean, you know, as we're speaking, we're in the
sort of twenty four to fifty to almost twenty five
hundred range.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
It seems like a very powerful move that's had some legs.
What do you think is going to be the main driver?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
We've talked again, we've talked about this sort of central
bank buying. Maybe we've talked about, you know, if the
FED pivots. I guess the Fed's probably one of the
more powerful influences, right.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
The interest rate, where the Fed sets the rates, and
more importantly, the direction of the rates is really important
for market psychology and how the market reacts. I do
think the markets are gaming a little bit. Gold is
gaming a little bit that the FED will cut rate
since September. But we also have a geopolitical conflict going on.
We got two wars, one in the Ukraine, and this
(01:49):
conflict between Israel and Iran was just helping to booyed
the gold price too. So it's a little hard to
tell which one's dominant right now because both are working.
But I think the gold price could get another bump
higher when the FED actually does cut rates for the
first time since they've been on this aggressive rate hike cycle.
And you know, everybody's thinking it's going to come in September,
(02:12):
We'll see got it?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Got it? Well, you've been in this business for a
long time.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
You know it inside and out. When you have customers
come in and talk to you, But what are their concerns?
What do you hear most often from people who want
to be involved in gold, want to be involved in silver.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well, fundamentally, I think a lot of people are concerned
about how much debt we've accumulated in the US. I mean,
in my presentation this morning, I talked about how it
took us two hundred years to get to five trillion,
we doubled that, we more than double that in ten
years now, We've more than doubled it again in another
ten years. So the question is, if we're at thirty
five trillion today, are we going to be at seventy
trillion in twenty and ten more years? Which is possible.
(02:46):
So debt's one. We've got these geopolitical conflicts. We've had inflation,
which is a loss of purchasing power of the dollar.
So some people just want to get some of their
money outside of the banking system, outside of a depreciating
and into an asset that's trusted and liquid and universally recognized.
(03:07):
And we're seeing records central bank physical buying as a
result of some central bankers around the world being nervous
about what we've done to Russia and sanctioning them. So
gold is a way for them to have an asset
that's all those things outside of the dollar and it
(03:28):
can't be sanctioned, and they're buying gold at a record
clip as a result.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Got it.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, we're obviously sitting in front of a case. It's
some very attractive looking coins. Talk a little bit about
what it is you do. I mean, there's a lot
of ways people can get exposure to precious metals.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
How does your business fit into that.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Well, we're in the physical arena. So we buy the
sovereign minted coins that are being made today one ounce
gold and silver pieces US mint, Canadian mint, Austrian mint,
British Royal mint. These are some of the most popular,
competitively priced, widely traded, and easily sellable when you want
(04:04):
to liquidate and take some profits. So we deal in
those I'm also a vintage coin expert, so we deal
a lot in the vintage US gold ten and twenty
dollars gold coins that go back to the thirties and earlier.
I've done a lot with those over the years. There
are times when we have a lot of demand or
a lack of demand, and the premiums on these coins
(04:26):
can wax and wane because they're limited to what was
made back in the day. And right now, we've seen
more sellers than buyers actually taking advantage of this higher
gold price in the US. It's not the case around
the world, but it's the case here in the US,
and we've seen premiums come down on some of these
vintage coins that are great historical pieces. They're limited in supply,
(04:47):
and when demand ramps back up, you can see the
premiums expand back up. So it's almost like having a
junior mining stock in a physical gold coin where you
can leverage the gold price with not a lot of
risk when the premium those are low, like they are
right now. So we look at those two and we
analyze those. We actually have charts for premiums and price
on our website that no one else publishes. Okay, So
(05:09):
if people are interested in something like that, we're experts
in that and we are fundamental thesis is just to
try and help people in the physical arena, because if
you help people, you actually help yourself in the process.
We get a lot of repeat buyers, we get a
lot of referrals, which is what our business model is
all about. That's what we try and do.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Okay, So if somebody wants to get involved, as simple
as picking up the phone going to your website, I mean,
what's the best way to again, for somebody who's not
involved in precious metals and wants to get started.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Well, our website has a lot of it's very informative,
it has transparent pricing on all the items that we
deal in. But if you want to get started it's
and you haven't done that before, it's really best to
give us a call because we're consultative in nature. We
want to help understand what you're trying to accomplish, so
we can give you our advice based on decades of
(05:54):
experience to find the right fit for you for what
you're trying to do. From a risk reward standpoint, how
long do you want to hold for do you have
an exit strategy, you know, what are your goals? Really,
we try and analyze that and then try and find
the right fit for people and help them as much
as we can. And we're national physical mail order dealers,
(06:14):
so we basically do business over the phone. You buy
like you would buy a stock. You know, the price
moves all the time. Once you lock in, you lock in,
we email an invoice, send us payment, and then we
ship you the merchandise. It's physical. We want you to
have it.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
We don't store for people.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Got it excellent? Well, Dan, I really appreciate you taking
some time out. I know things have been busy here.
It's great to chat and best of luck here in
Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
It's been a great show. We're really happy to be here.
And then thanks for having us.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
We'll have more interviews for you every week. So I
encourage you to subscribe to the Money Master's podcast so
you can stay up to date with the insights from
top money experts. You can follow me on Twitter at
real Mike Larson and follow Money Show for more investing
and trading content on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube at Money Show.
Thanks for listening, See you next time.
Hi there.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Mike Larson, editor in chief at Money Show, and
I'm coming to you from the Money Show Master's Imposium
in Las Vegas today. I'm pleased to be speaking with
Dana Samuelson, President of American Gold Exchange.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Dana, how are you.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm great, Mike's great to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, glad we could have a chance to chat here.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I know in your presentation, what was it called the
why gold will continue to be one of the best
performing assets in the twenty first century. Let's talk about that.
If somebody didn't get a chance to catch your keynote, what.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Was the basic thesis?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, you know, I've been watching the gold market for
forty four years. I started the American Gold Exchange twenty
six years ago, and so I've been watching the gold
price take up and down for a long long time.
And usually we have one or two market influencing factors
or forces come to bear on the market at a
single point in time. They go away, so interest rates
(00:50):
or debt, or geopolitical conflict or inflation, or just excess demand.
And we're in a phase right now. It's unusual in
that we've got all of these forces coming to bear
on the market at the same point in time, at
the same place, which means a gold setting a new
(01:10):
all time high.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I mean, you know, as we're speaking, we're in the
sort of twenty four to fifty to almost twenty five
hundred range.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
It seems like a very powerful move that's had some legs.
What do you think is going to be the main driver?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
We've talked again, we've talked about this sort of central
bank buying. Maybe we've talked about, you know, if the
FED pivots. I guess the Fed's probably one of the
more powerful influences, right.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
The interest rate, where the Fed sets the rates, and
more importantly, the direction of the rates is really important
for market psychology and how the market reacts. I do
think the markets are gaming a little bit. Gold is
gaming a little bit that the FED will cut rate
since September. But we also have a geopolitical conflict going on.
We got two wars, one in the Ukraine, and this
(01:49):
conflict between Israel and Iran was just helping to booyed
the gold price too. So it's a little hard to
tell which one's dominant right now because both are working.
But I think the gold price could get another bump
higher when the FED actually does cut rates for the
first time since they've been on this aggressive rate hike cycle.
And you know, everybody's thinking it's going to come in September,
(02:12):
We'll see got it?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Got it? Well, you've been in this business for a
long time.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
You know it inside and out. When you have customers
come in and talk to you, But what are their concerns?
What do you hear most often from people who want
to be involved in gold, want to be involved in silver.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well, fundamentally, I think a lot of people are concerned
about how much debt we've accumulated in the US. I mean,
in my presentation this morning, I talked about how it
took us two hundred years to get to five trillion,
we doubled that, we more than double that in ten
years now, We've more than doubled it again in another
ten years. So the question is, if we're at thirty
five trillion today, are we going to be at seventy
trillion in twenty and ten more years? Which is possible.
(02:46):
So debt's one. We've got these geopolitical conflicts. We've had inflation,
which is a loss of purchasing power of the dollar.
So some people just want to get some of their
money outside of the banking system, outside of a depreciating
and into an asset that's trusted and liquid and universally recognized.
(03:07):
And we're seeing records central bank physical buying as a
result of some central bankers around the world being nervous
about what we've done to Russia and sanctioning them. So
gold is a way for them to have an asset
that's all those things outside of the dollar and it
(03:28):
can't be sanctioned, and they're buying gold at a record
clip as a result.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Got it.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, we're obviously sitting in front of a case. It's
some very attractive looking coins. Talk a little bit about
what it is you do. I mean, there's a lot
of ways people can get exposure to precious metals.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
How does your business fit into that.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Well, we're in the physical arena. So we buy the
sovereign minted coins that are being made today one ounce
gold and silver pieces US mint, Canadian mint, Austrian mint,
British Royal mint. These are some of the most popular,
competitively priced, widely traded, and easily sellable when you want
(04:04):
to liquidate and take some profits. So we deal in
those I'm also a vintage coin expert, so we deal
a lot in the vintage US gold ten and twenty
dollars gold coins that go back to the thirties and earlier.
I've done a lot with those over the years. There
are times when we have a lot of demand or
a lack of demand, and the premiums on these coins
(04:26):
can wax and wane because they're limited to what was
made back in the day. And right now, we've seen
more sellers than buyers actually taking advantage of this higher
gold price in the US. It's not the case around
the world, but it's the case here in the US,
and we've seen premiums come down on some of these
vintage coins that are great historical pieces. They're limited in supply,
(04:47):
and when demand ramps back up, you can see the
premiums expand back up. So it's almost like having a
junior mining stock in a physical gold coin where you
can leverage the gold price with not a lot of
risk when the premium those are low, like they are
right now. So we look at those two and we
analyze those. We actually have charts for premiums and price
on our website that no one else publishes. Okay, So
(05:09):
if people are interested in something like that, we're experts
in that and we are fundamental thesis is just to
try and help people in the physical arena, because if
you help people, you actually help yourself in the process.
We get a lot of repeat buyers, we get a
lot of referrals, which is what our business model is
all about. That's what we try and do.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Okay, So if somebody wants to get involved, as simple
as picking up the phone going to your website, I mean,
what's the best way to again, for somebody who's not
involved in precious metals and wants to get started.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Well, our website has a lot of it's very informative,
it has transparent pricing on all the items that we
deal in. But if you want to get started it's
and you haven't done that before, it's really best to
give us a call because we're consultative in nature. We
want to help understand what you're trying to accomplish, so
we can give you our advice based on decades of
(05:54):
experience to find the right fit for you for what
you're trying to do. From a risk reward standpoint, how
long do you want to hold for do you have
an exit strategy, you know, what are your goals? Really,
we try and analyze that and then try and find
the right fit for people and help them as much
as we can. And we're national physical mail order dealers,
(06:14):
so we basically do business over the phone. You buy
like you would buy a stock. You know, the price
moves all the time. Once you lock in, you lock in,
we email an invoice, send us payment, and then we
ship you the merchandise. It's physical. We want you to
have it.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
We don't store for people.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Got it excellent? Well, Dan, I really appreciate you taking
some time out. I know things have been busy here.
It's great to chat and best of luck here in
Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
It's been a great show. We're really happy to be here.
And then thanks for having us.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
We'll have more interviews for you every week. So I
encourage you to subscribe to the Money Master's podcast so
you can stay up to date with the insights from
top money experts. You can follow me on Twitter at
real Mike Larson and follow Money Show for more investing
and trading content on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube at Money Show.
Thanks for listening, See you next time.
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